Most horror games these days don't even class as horror, they're, as the brilliant mind of Yahtzee Croshaw put it, 'action games where all the enemies jump out of closest and have arms for tits'

I'm looking at you Dead Space >.> your not horror. Your Resident Evil in space. And no, before anyone even tries, Resident Evil 4 was not scary. It was about as scary as a game of Halo Reach with no ammo. Your overwhelmed, outnumbered, outgunned, and can barely defend yourself while trying to get away from the horde. That's not genuine horror, that's just being outmatched.

The second your able to shoot the monsters dead with any kind of ease, all horror immediately dies. If the pro's and con's of fighting outweigh those of running away like a little girl, then your not playing a Horror game at all, your probably on Dead Space, Dark Corners of the Earth, or any other action games that think gunning down The Thing with an M60 makes it scary.

Ah....but being unable to defend yourself against the oncoming hordes isn't fun, now is it? Constantly having to flee for your life to complete the game. That may be scary, but for most people, it's not fun or interesting.

Or realistic, for that matter. >_> In Space or on Earth, you would have at least someway to defend yourself before they could kill you, even if it's a simple lead-pipe.

Also, most games like Dead Space or RE4, on the hardest difficulty, limit how much ammo you collect over the course of the game. o3o

Plus Sabby, take a game like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, where all that you can do is run away...no way to fight, no way to stop them...it quickly turns into just an unfun Benny Hill sound-track laced comedy spectacle. >_>

Why shouldn't a SNES game be scary? There is even a quite scary NES game, named "Sweet Home". It's by Capcom and kind of a predecessor of Resident Evil, only as a RPG (although, since it's actually scary, it's pretty much the opposite of RE...). In fact, the 8-Bit music makes it even creepier.

Why shouldn't a SNES game be scary? There is even a quite scary NES game, named "Sweet Home". It's by Capcom and kind of a predecessor of Resident Evil, only as a RPG (although, since it's actually scary, it's pretty much the opposite of RE...). In fact, the 8-Bit music makes it even creepier.

Ah....but being unable to defend yourself against the oncoming hordes isn't fun, now is it? Constantly having to flee for your life to complete the game. That may be scary, but for most people, it's not fun or interesting.

Or realistic, for that matter. >_> In Space or on Earth, you would have at least someway to defend yourself before they could kill you, even if it's a simple lead-pipe.

Also, most games like Dead Space or RE4, on the hardest difficulty, limit how much ammo you collect over the course of the game. o3o

Plus Sabby, take a game like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, where all that you can do is run away...no way to fight, no way to stop them...it quickly turns into just an unfun Benny Hill sound-track laced comedy spectacle. >_>

You assume that this kind of game needs consistent numbers of enemies. Not true. We're conditioned to swing to extreme's, especially with how gaming has been the last decade. You either fight, or you can't. The key element to a good game is balance, and balance is something that actually takes friggen work to do.

You can have a horror game where you have minimal self defence options that doesn't involve you running through every level with packs of enemies on your heels >.> that's retarded, and Shattered Memories was stupid for even including it. But the complete opposite is Homecoming, where every enemy is beaten into a twitchy mass with your all American combat skills.

These are two sides of the coin, and they both are very loud about which side of the coin they rest on, but what takes real skill in game design is sitting on the rim of the coin. I've yet to see a game that pulls that off in horror.

You assume that this kind of game needs consistent numbers of enemies. Not true. We're conditioned to swing to extreme's, especially with how gaming has been the last decade. You either fight, or you can't. The key element to a good game is balance, and balance is something that actually takes friggen work to do.

You can have a horror game where you have minimal self defence options that doesn't involve you running through every level with packs of enemies on your heels >.> that's retarded, and Shattered Memories was stupid for even including it. But the complete opposite is Homecoming, where every enemy is beaten into a twitchy mass with your all American combat skills.

These are two sides of the coin, and they both are very loud about which side of the coin they rest on, but what takes real skill in game design is sitting on the rim of the coin. I've yet to see a game that pulls that off in horror.

That's because it will never happen. You can't be able to fight off the hordes while simultaneously having to run from them. The only way to do that would be to have infinitely respawning enemies, and we've moved past that 80's Cliche. o3o

Once again, you use the word 'horde'. And once again, I ask where these numbers have become such a staple?

Okay, picture your in a house, and only one enemy is after you... an enemy that only has a vague idea of where you may be hiding, but he can hear your footsteps, your girly frightened breathing, and he's not above slashing the fuck out of a mattress just to see if your hiding under the bed.

You can run, you can hide, you can deceive him (break a window to make it look like you climbed out, then double back for the closet) and if all else fails, wait for the right time to put a chair over his back while he's near the stair case.

And if that house is big enough, then losing that one enemy for a while would be easy, but confrontations would have you so physically outmatched, the only voluntary combat you initiate is to give you that shot at the door, before he finds your hiding spot.

And this is just assuming a typical setting. Sci-fi or supernatural horror can work without just putting you up against dozen's of zombies with scythes on their shoulders. Imagine a second your against something that's blind... sure, one casual swipe and it's guna take your head off, but it's navigating purely on sound. That includes your breathing, which get's worse as it stalks closer, and that kettle you just threw down the hall to lure it's attention.

As it zero's in on the sound and bounds off to check, it get's the scuffling of your shoes, and chases you into a packing area, where there's too much sound, and it's becoming angered, and is now randomly tearing up work stations and shelves, screeching. Nows a good time for you to climb and get to higher ground without it following, and either keep going or find something big to drop on it's head.

And say your not getting away from it that easy, and all you have in your hand is a shard of glass in a cloth. It's sniffing along a wall, throat clicking, listening and searching, and it's between you and your exit. You've got a free shot... do you take it? Shanking it in the back is guna severely piss it off, but as it spazzes out, you've got a free 'run' card and can put as much distance between you two, AND you may even cripple it, or impair it. Or... you could get slashed to meat ribbons.

So once again, stop assuming horror games are either run from hordes, or fight the hordes xD there are clever way's to design a horror game, and I'm sure my two examples are only a claw mark on the surface.

Regarding pixels being scary: Back when I was still playing DOS games, there was a game call 'Darkseed'. It was also released on the SEGA system. If you want to see scary pixels, check this out. (Go through the whole slide show - there are a couple non-scary shots, but they are outnumbered by the scary kind.) H.R. Giger contributed to this game. (no joke!)

Currently playing on the PSP:Dissidia Final Fantasy (I love being able to beat up Sephiroth and Tidus with Firion, Mateus, Cecil, Golbez, Squall, Zidane, Kuja, Jecht and Garland...an excellent way to relieve stress)Final Fantasy Tactics (One of my favorite RPGs and old-school games; pity you can't play as Delita, Wiegraf, Milleuda or Isilud)Jeanne D'Arc (One of my friends let me borrow this; it's much more appealing than I thought it'd be)

Regarding pixels being scary: Back when I was still playing DOS games, there was a game call 'Darkseed'. It was also released on the SEGA system. If you want to see scary pixels, check this out. (Go through the whole slide show - there are a couple non-scary shots, but they are outnumbered by the scary kind.) H.R. Giger contributed to this game. (no joke!)

Mostly because of how bad the game engine was in Thief and Deus Ex 2 xD fantastic shadows, good character models, but awful ragdoll, frame rate and animations... yeah, that's a zombie on the ground. Yes, you need to sneak, to keep it noticing you. And yes, if you bother it, it will simple twitch into a standing positing impossibly fast.

Going through Singularity, and getting to that one Tunnel level, with no Ammo, and basically no health.

Said Tunnel Level contains enemies that can kill you in basically two to three hits at full health, enemies who react to loud noises. Thus starts a session of walking extremely slowly, tip-toeing around each and every one of them, trying not to set them off, for if one reacts, they all will.

Compile onto this that I had to actually look up how to get past said tunnel, and thus you have a scary time of constantly tip-toeing around, trying to stay quiet while also looking for the way out..and being unable to find any at all. O_o

Also, Scary would be that one game...I can't remember what it's name is, though...but it had a sanity meter, and if your meter got low, random, crazy shit would start happening, such as your character's head flying off their body, zooming up to the screen, then reciting shakespeare. O-o Or the game "Shutting off", or telling you that your save file was corrupted(when it wasn't), or making you think your console had reset itself. O_o

Ramza and Delita. I also like Alma and Reis (Dragon-Lady ^^). Strangely, I never used the special characters when I didn't have to...loved using purely generics.

Favorite class?

I gotta admit I like Ramza and Delita as well, though I have a soft spot for Meliadoul, Ovelia, Isilud, pre-Lucavi Wiegraf, Alma, Zalbaag, Milleuda and Confessor Zalmour. My favorite class (technically) is a Monk, though I also like the Ark Knight (Elmdore's version), Ninja and Rune Knight (Dycedarg) classes? You?

I gotta admit I like Ramza and Delita as well, though I have a soft spot for Meliadoul, Ovelia, Isilud, pre-Lucavi Wiegraf, Alma, Zalbaag, Milleuda and Confessor Zalmour. My favorite class (technically) is a Monk, though I also like the Ark Knight (Elmdore's version), Ninja and Rune Knight (Dycedarg) classes? You?

Well, from the PSP version, I LOVE the dark knight class. Original class, I like Ninja, Monk, White Mage (Oh, how useful!), Summoner (kinda useless but interesting) and Geomancer.